You Can Find Me Where The Music Meets The Ocean
by Riley Scott
Summary: AU. Felicity, Laurel and Sara are invited to join Tommy at his family's beach house for the summer. It is supposed to be a relaxing vacation but when an unexpected guest makes an appearance, long buried issues come to light and must be dealt with. There is no Arrow or Flash, this is just a world where they have even less excuses to avoid their problems.
1. You Are My Favorite What If (You Are My

You Are My Favorite What If (You Are My Best I'll Never Know)

Chapter One

May 15th – May 31st

May 15th 2015  
Just after 5 o'clock in the freaking morning

"I'm not caffeinated enough for this: A Memoir." Felicity Smoak groaned as she rolled down the window and pulled her baseball cap lower on her head, covering her eyes from the sun that wasn't quite lighting the sky enough to really bug her. She had her feet propped up on the dashboard of the rented SUV and her flip flops were kicked off into the floorboard.

Sara Lance rolled her eyes from the backseat and lazily slapped the headrest of the seat in front of her, not having the energy to actually aim at her best friend. "Is that the follow-up to the best selling 'These Shoes Kill My Feet, But Heal My Soul: An Autobiography'? "She asked the blonde in the front seat with a smirk. Or what could pass for a smirk this early in the morning the day after her last final.

"Or of course the hit coffee table book "How phenomenal does my ass look in this? A series of short stories'" Sara's older sister Laurel asked as she climbed into the front seat, throwing her bags across the console to land where Felicity's feet should have been. As she turned to her less than coherent passengers she cocked an eyebrow and slipped her sunglasses on top of her head. "Listen up ladies, this little road trip idea was yours. I wanted to wait until next Monday and fly down with Tommy, but you both begged to have a week to ourselves and an old fashioned road trip. So I refuse to listen to 13 plus hours of bitching. Got it?" She didn't so much wait for an answer as she dared them to object. So Felicity eyes met Sara's in the rear view mirror and they nodded at each other and settled back into their seats.

Laurel nodded, starting the truck and as she pulled onto the deserted road she turned on her go to road trip play list, turning it up as loud as she could stand it. If she couldn't sleep, neither could they.

After several not so comfortable hours in the car, the ladies decided a pit stop in DC was in order. After loading up on coffee and, at Felicity's insistence a few 'road trip selfies' they were on their way again.

Laurel was right, Sara and Felicity had both insisted on driving down to Emerald Isle right after finales instead of waiting until the first of June. When they had first been invited by Laurel's boyfriend to spend a few weeks at his family's beach house they hadn't been all that excited. But then Laurel had broken the news that she would be moving to New York come the fall and Sara had jumped at the chance to spend one last non-adult summer with her sister.

Felicity had agreed to come at Sara's request, because to be honest the sisters weren't the closest and things could get hostile between them from time to time. Felicity knew they shared a checkered past that had something to do with a boy, and she knew that even though they had both moved on from said boy, that they still had unresolved issues with each other. And while Felicity liked Laurel just fine, as she had spent quite a bit of time with her over the last three years, ever since her and Sara had agreed to share an off campus apartment together, she was particularly fond of Tommy, Laurels' boyfriend of 2 years. She didn't get to see him all that often, because even though he was dating her roommate/best friend's sister he still spent the majority of his time in New York, where he was attending grad school. He came down to Boston on the weekends and whenever he wasn't in bed with Laurel he would swing by Felicity and Sara's apartment for a coffee and advice. Even though he had known Laurel his entire life, and had been a welcome guest in her bed for 2 years now, he wasn't all that confident in their relationship. He had started coming by the apartment to get Sara's take on the situation, but considering the past the sister's shared, Sara wasn't all that comfortable spending time with him. So Felicity had taken pity on the poor guy, mainly because she was astounded that a boy like Tommy Merlyn was bummed that his relationship with a hot girl was mostly spent in bed.

Felicity really liked Tommy, he was sweet and sincere and could turn anything into an innuendo, something that she had feared was a talent she alone possessed. She also felt bad for him, it was obvious that he had suffered a lot of loss in his life, and that he wanted so badly to escape his past. He talked to her about his father, Malcolm, who Felicity had come to learn was not only one of the richest men on the west coast, but also the most heartless. When Tommy's mother had been killed in a robbery gone wrong when Tommy was a small child, Malcolm had decided that the best way to deal with his pain was to never show anyone affection again, and that included his own son. So Tommy had grown up basically alone, and had lashed out. He partied, slept around and pretty much blocked out his entire childhood. The only person he was close to as a child and later as a teenager was his best friend, Ollie. Tommy didn't like to talk about Ollie a lot, mostly because he reminded him of all of the mistakes he had made in his life. But also because Ollie had been gone for over 5 years now. Felicity wasn't entirely sure what 'gone' meant, because whenever she asked Tommy he just got quiet. So she didn't know if that meant he was dead, or in prison or had joined a cult, but either way no one wanted to talk about it. She had even asked Sara once, and she had just got a pained look on her face and walked away. Those Starling City people liked to play things way too close to the vest for her liking. But still, she had grown really close to Tommy over the years and she felt that she knew him well enough to know that this summer wasn't just about relaxing at the beach with some friends. This was a turning point for him, and it was really flattering that he had invited her and Sara to come along. She knew that whatever he had planned it must be really important to her. She also hoped that it didn't blow up in his face.

Sara groaned as Felicity's turn to put on her road trip play list came around. She loved that girl like a sister, but she had the most annoying taste in music. Well, if Sara were being totally honest with herself, she liked some of it, but she prided herself on being a music snob and would never admit that she liked some of that Top 40 crap.

She didn't care if Nick Jonas had stopped dating the entire Disney Channel line up and had spent some time in the gym, she didn't want people to know she liked his new album.

She rolled her eyes as her 'almost a lawyer sister' and her best friend bounced around in their seats and leaned her head against the door jam, letting the wind blow in her face. It was well into the evening now and they had been in the car for over 10 hours total, minus the million pit stops they had to make for Felicity to pee after her keg of coffee. She could feel a change in the air and knew that they were getting closer to the ocean, even if they still had a few hours left. She could feel the nerves in her stomach grown tenser as they got closer to the vacation house.

When Laurel had first asked her to join her and Tommy at the beach house she thought it was a terrible idea. But then when Laurel broke the news that she had scored an internship in a law office in NYC and would be taking the bar in New York state she had panicked. This meant, for the first time in their lives they would be living in different states. Sure, they had spent some time apart, when Laurel had gone away to college before Sara, but they hadn't even been speaking then. And Laurel was always home for breaks and holidays. This was a lot more permanent. She knew this was the moment when she could either accept that her and Laurel would never be the sister's that she wanted to to be, or she could try and change their past.

Her and Laurel had never been that close growing up. They were three years apart in age, which was just enough to make it difficult for them to relate to each other. It didn't help that Laurel had always been a Mama's girl and Sara had always related more to their Father. Sara always resented Laurel for her natural beauty and grace, and had always wanted everything she had. So when Laurel went away to college and her bad boy boyfriend had come home after being kicked out of his 4th college she saw her chance to take something from Laurel. She had always had crush on Ollie, hell every girl in town did. He was cocky and rich and not to mention beautiful. And despite the fact that he had been dating Laurel on and off since her junior year of high school, he still managed to get plenty of action. He had always looked at Sara the same way her sister had, as the annoying little tomboy that had her father wrapped around her finger.

But then he was back home and Laurel wasn't. He was fighting with his parents constantly and always drunk or high and Sara knew that he was always looking for a way to shock people. So when she had come on to him outside of a dive bar down by the docks late one night, when he was beyond drunk and a little beat up, he had asked her to come back to his place. She had suggested his family's yacht because it was closer. They had barely even gotten their shirts off when his father had come in, furious and threatening to tell her parents.

Sara didn't remember a lot of what happened after that. She had blocked most of it out. But what she did know was that he parents had found out, as had Laurel and everyone else for that matter. And before she could even see Ollie again, he was gone.

Her and Laurel's already fragile relationship was destroyed. And her relationship with her parents right along with it. Her mother was always crying, her Dad could barely look her in the eye and Laurel stopped coming home for holidays and spent her breaks at school in Seattle.

Sara spiraled out of control and soon, during the summer after she barely graduated high school her parents split and she bottomed out. Eventually she was sent away to live with her mom is Boston, and since her mom had moved there for a teaching job she had gotten into Cambridge University pretty easily, and for free.

She had barely spoken to Laurel since the divorce and was really shocked when her sister had decided to attend law school at Cambridge. They had slowly come back together as sisters, but they still had their hard moments. She hoped that spending this summer together, the one before Laurel became an adult would leave enough of an impression, and that they would keep repairing the damage. And despite the way she distanced herself from Tommy and his relationship with Laurel she knew that she wasn't the only one fighting to keep Laurel in their lives.

Laurel looked over at her sister, the blonde hair that had escaped her messy bun blowing in the wind and her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses, even though the sun was sitting low in the sky and her lips curled into small smile. She looked into the rear view mirror at Felicity who was playing with her tablet, her face hidden by the brim of her baseball cap.

They were only an hour away from their destination at this point and the wind filling the truck had turned chilly. She had done her fair share of complaining when both girls had suggested driving to the Merlyn beach house. Being in any car for more than a few hours was annoying, but being in a car with her little sister and her best friend for 13 hours was down right nightmare inducing. But it actually hadn't been that bad. They had made a few stops along the way, and as long as she let Felicity get her coffee and the occasional wi-fi hotspot and kept her sister loaded down with Twizzlers they had been pretty easy to deal with.

When Tommy had asked her to spend the summer with him, alone in North Carolina she had laughed. They had known each other since diapers, and had been sharing a bed 3 nights a week for years, but the idea of spending weeks with him alone made her feel claustrophobic. When she realized that he was serious she felt bad, and to avoid an argument she had agreed, but only if she could invite Sara. He countered her offer by insisting that she also invite Felicity. She had ignored the tug of jealousy at that, figuring that he just wanted Sara to have someone to occupy her time.

She knew that Tommy wasn't happy with the nature of their relationship and she also knew that he was hoping this summer together would encourage her to make more of a commitment to him once they lived in the same city. She had hoped that the simple fact that she had chosen the internship in New York over Seattle or Boston would be enough, but clearly it wasn't.

It wasn't that she didn't care for Tommy. He had been one of her closest friends for more than 20 years and they had been through a lot together. But that was part of the problem. They knew everything about one another, and Laurel knew what type of man Tommy had been for the majority of his life. And the last time she had taken a chance on that type of man she had lost her family.

She had avoided Tommy for years after the fiasco with Ollie and her family. She had buried herself in her studies and tried to forget her life from before. But during her first year of law school she had gone to NYU for a seminar and ran into him. It had felt like a set up and she had been on the defense. But he had always been the most charming of their group and had convinced her to have a drink with him. And then dinner and then breakfast. She had returned to Boston and her regularly scheduled life and had hoped that their night together would just remain that, a night. But a month later he appeared, waiting in the hall after one of her classes and he just kept appearing. She finally accepted his offer to another dinner, but simply because she was worried he would flunk out of grad school if he kept flying down to Boston.

Next thing she knew he was coming to see her every weekend. Then he started calling them a couple, which she wasn't all that sure about, considering they never left her bedroom on his weekly visits. But it made him happy, and she had enough on her plate so she went with it.

And now here she was, on the way to spend the summer with him and he had been calling her his girlfriend for more than 2 years. She never really talked about him to anyone, so she wasn't entirely sure what she felt. She knew that he was important to her, but she also knew that letting him be important was really risky considering the type of man he was.

Considering that when he left her bedroom for his 'morning jog' he always went right to her sister's apartment three blocks from her own.

The first time she had followed him there, she had been sure that he was sleeping with Sara. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened to her. But then she had called Sara and she was at her Saturday morning kickboxing class. So then she thought that he was sleeping with her sister's roommate. So she had made a point of getting to know Felicity better. She had known her well enough for what she was, her little sister's college friend. But she didn't know her well enough as Tommy's side piece. It had taken her a few weeks to realize that she had been wrong, and that whatever it was that was going on with Felicity and Tommy, it wasn't sexual. Felicity was way too awkward to ever hide an elicit affair.

The side effect of her investigation was not only that she had gotten to know Felicity better, but that she had also been reintroduced to her sister.

She had been really surprised at her sister's relationship with Felicity. They were totally different people. They didn't even go to the same college. Felicity went to MIT, and was in her first year of grad school there, at only 19 years old. But seeing her sister with a friend, a close friend had made her see her sister in a different light. Suddenly they weren't competing anymore, and they both had their own lives.

For the first time in a long time she felt like she had a family that worked. Her and her Father had connected during her year off from college. She had put off law school when she realized that his nightly scotch and soda had turned into something out of his control. She moved home and helped him get back on his feet. Almost as soon as she arrived back in Starling Sara had ran in the other direction, to live with their Mom in Boston. While Laurel worked on her relationship with their Dad, Sara repaired her relationship with their Mom. Sara took advantage of her Mother's pull at Cambridge and as soon as Detective Lance was back to himself, Laurel did the same.

For the first time they were all on the same page and Laurel was terrified that the changes in her life would make it all implode. Especially if one of those changes involved Tommy.

It was almost 10 when the girls finally made it to the beach house. They were all sore and tired and beyond hungry by the time they rolled themselves out of the truck.

Felicity leaned against the hood of the SUV and let her head fall back as she stared up at the enormous house in front of her. She had known that Tommy came from money, just as she had known that Laurel and Sara had grown up in one of the richest parts of the country. But considering the Lance girls were raised by a police detective and a college professor and Tommy had been cut off from his wealth for over a year, she hadn't expected this at all. She had expected a small colorful beach house on sticks a few blocks from the ocean.

She pulled off her baseball cap and ran a hand through her messy road trip hair and sighed.

"How am I supposed to relax in this place?" She asked her travel companions.

Sara walked up behind her and laid an arm on her shoulder. "Eh, you get used to it. Just don't burn anything down."

May 16th 2015

Felicity woke up to the ocean in her ears. The first day in months, or really years that she didn't have an alarm set and she was still woken up at the ass crack of dawn. She groaned, rubbing her hand over her face, pushing the mess of blonde hair out of her eyes and looked around the bright room. When she had been exploring the house last night she had chosen this room simply because it was on the other side of the house from the rooms that Sara and Laurel had picked. She knew that once Tommy arrived that the rooms around him and Laurel would be too...noisy for her liking and she also knew from experience that Sara snored. So she picked this room simply due to location, but now looking at it in the early morning light she was even more pleased with it. It had vaulted ceilings and a large wooden fan, a skylight and the wall facing the water was almost entirely windows. It was all in white and sea blue and had a built in desk beside the bed and a nice chaise lounge in the corner. This was an ideal room for her and she did a little victorious fist bump and gave herself a mental high-five as she bounced off of the bed to get ready for the day.

By the time Sara made it downstairs it was mid morning and Felicity and her sister were already sitting at the bar in the kitchen, both with bowl sized cups of coffee in front of them. There was so much natural light in the room that no one had bothered to turn on any overhead lights. Laurel looked up at her as she entered and smiled, pointing over to the counter by the fridge at the coffee pot.

The three of them bustled around the kitchen for the next half an hour, drinking coffee and making a light breakfast, neither of them feeling the need to make idle chit chat. It was after 10 when they had finished cleaning up and agreed to head down to the beach for the day.

They were walking down the long private walkway to the sand less than half an hour later, all three women dressed in their bathing suits and carrying towels and lotions.

As they made it down to the sand, Felicity looked around at the overwhelming view of the water and sighed, a weight lifting off of her chest. It took her about 3 seconds to notice something odd.

"Hey, were are the other people?" She asked, lifting her shades to rest of her head.

Laurel laughed, and Sara smiled at her.

"You're cute." She said, which Felicity had come to learn was Sara's way of telling her that she was missing something important/

"The idea that Malcolm Merlyn would by a house on a public beach is the funniest thing I have ever heard." Laurel said with a chuckle, dropping her sandals into the sand and laying out her towel, the wind fighting her.

Felicity looked at the sisters as they arranged themselves on their towels and once again felt overwhelmed by the wealth she was suddenly surrounded with.

"Wait, so does this mean I don't have to wear a top?"

Felicity never managed to work up the courage to explore the topless prospect, but they still had a pretty great time having the beach to themselves.

They spent the week in almost complete relaxation. Every morning they would get up and have a quiet breakfast of mostly coffee and fruit and then would get dressed for the water. Some days they would swim in the ocean, some days they would stick to the pool. They spent the week in almost complete relaxation.

Every morning they would get up and have a quiet breakfast of mostly coffee and fruit and then would get dressed for the water. Some days they would swim in the ocean, some days they would stick to the pool or the hot tub that overlooked the sand dunes.

While they spent most of their afternoons tanning and drinking fruity drinks, they spent most of their evenings out on the town. Each evening they went into town to go shopping, or out for coffee and ice cream and the occasional movie. Before heading back to the beach house each night they would stop at the grocery store and pick up whatever they needed to prep dinner that night. Then once back at the house they would spend hours fluttering around each other in the kitchen, laughing, talking and preparing all manner of things for dinner and snacking as they cooked.

Most nights they were full by the time they even set the table.

They were all getting along really well, but sometimes its would get quiet and Laurel would feel a little left out of the closeness between Sara and Felicity, especially when they started in a their inside jokes. The first day they had went on this tirade about tanning.

"I really need to tan before going to Cabo." Felicity had started off in a casual manner. Laurel had been confused, wondering when the blonde would be going to Cabo, she had thought that she was staying with them all summer.

Sara had just nodded and said "Yeah, I mean I know I do too. How can we go tan in Cabo, if we don't tan before hand?" She asked with a curled lip, like it was an outrageous suggestion.

That made Laurel even more confused. She kept shooting glances at the two women as they battled back and forth about Cabo and tanning and then suddenly Felicity lost it and erupted into a fit of  
giggles.

Finally Sara had taken pity on her sister and explained that they had spent the last three New Years Eves eating Chinese take out and watching cheesy reality tv on dvd. This past year had been Laguna Beach and apparently the main plot of one episode was tanning for a trip to tan in Cabo.

Laurel just rolled her eyes and went to take a dip in the water as Felicity and Sara laughed at their own cleverness.

The days passed pretty uneventfully and before they knew it they were spending their last night as an all girl house. So they all decided to have a girly movie night and slipped into their pjs right after dinner. They were all sitting in the living room, spread out on the couch, tossing popcorn at each other and laughing at the cheesy chick flicks they were watching.

Laurel watched Sara and Felicity as they started to doze on the couch, Sara with her head in Felicity's lap and sighed. She had really been enjoying herself this week and she knew that in just a few short hours Tommy would be here and everything would change.

She just didn't realize how much.


	2. Anything You Say Can Be Held Against You

'Anything You Say Can Be Held Against You (So Only Say My Name)'

Chapter Two

June 1st

9am

Tommy Merlyn stood on the back porch of his family's beach house and breathed in the ocean air, a smile on his face. He had been standing on the porch, his hands in his pockets and his mind racing for almost an hour now. He had flown in on his Dad's private plane this morning from New York and had landed at the airport just after 7 and had taken his sweet time getting to the house. He was very eager to see Laurel, it had been over two weeks since he had gotten to hold her, but he was also worried about the fall out as well.

He was so tired. He was 26 years old and he was so fucking tired. He had it better than most, he knew but that didn't mean that he had it easy. He had been privileged enough to be born into the Merlyn family, one of the wealthiest families on the west coast and everything that came with it. The first 8 years of his life was perfect. He had great parents, an amazing best friend and everything an 8 year old could dream of. But then his Mother had been killed one night when someone had decided that her purse was worth her life. Then his Father had lost his faith in humanity and in his son. Tommy had always favored his Mother, he had her eyes and her nose. So every time Malcolm had looked at Tommy, he saw the love of his life. Tommy never saw his Father much after the funeral and spent the next decade or so doing whatever he could to get attention.

Despite not knowing what it felt to grown up loved, Tommy had counted himself pretty lucky. That was, until he lost his best friend when he was 20 years old. It had happened in a flash, and he didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, because he had been away at college.

He had really hit rock bottom for a while then, he had come very close to flunking out of college.

But suddenly it occurred to him that his life would be nothing but eternal suck unless he did something about it. So he had finished his Bachelors and applied to NYU for his MBA. It was at NYU that he had run into Laurel again for the first time since before Oliver left. He had always been in love with her, but out of respect for his best friend he had never pursued anything. But know Oliver was gone, and she was a free agent. At first he just expected it to be a one time thing. But once he held her he was addicted. So over the span of a few months he used every tool in his arsenal to get her to agree to be with him. While their relationship wasn't perfect, it was better than being without her.

For a while there Tommy was doing great and had finally started to form a plan for his future. He had always been expected to take over the family business, but he wanted to be as far away from his Father as possible. So he decided to do what he knew, clubs. He already had his business plan worked out, he would open and chain of nightclubs along the east coast, and he would use his trust fund to build it. He just needed his MBA in order to be taken seriously.

He had kept the plan under wraps for over a year. But then, once he started shopping the idea around word got back to her Father and Malcolm had cut him off. He would continue to pay for school, and Tommy would still have access to the family homes and planes if needed, but his trust fund and bank accounts were frozen.

It had been a really rough year for Tommy, adjusting to life without unlimited funds, but he had managed just fine. Especially once he found a paid internship. His plans were still in motion, just delayed, but he refused to cave to his Father's demands. New York was his home and his future was his own.

He had his girl and he had his plan, and nothing could ruin that.

When Laurel had first told him that she had decided to take the internship in New York he had been over the moon. But then she has started talking about getting a place, her own place and he had felt like she had punched him in the gut. He had let himself believe for a split second that she was choosing not just New York, but him. He had thought this was the push they needed to finally take the next step. But obviously she didn't feel the same, so instead he had devised the beach house plan. He had known when she pushed for Sara to come that she was doing it so that she would have a person on her team. So he had thrown in Felicity as his backup, knowing that she was on his side. And of course Laurel Lance was never one to back down from a fight.

So here he was, joining in on what had up to this point been a girls getaway and he was nervous as hell. Nervous because he would have unlimited time with Laurel and also, because for the first time in five years he would bring her face to face with the man that they had both grown up with, the man that neither of them had seen since the day he left. He had neglected to mention to Laurel, or anyone for that matter, that Oliver Queen was finally returning to Starling City after being away for five years. He didn't think anyone but him and the Queen family even knew and he was hedging his bets that it would be kept quiet until next week, when the prodigal son finally returned.

He knew the Queen family had their own reasons for keeping Oliver's return out of the papers, but Tommy had found that it suited his needs as well. Laurel was extremely smart, it was one of the things he loved about her. She was also extremely suspicious, especially when it came to Oliver, so he had chosen to keep her in the dark about Oliver's return, but he knew that starting today he couldn't hide it anymore.

Laurel woke with a start, her hand flying to her face and she gasped. She had just had the strangest dream.

Oliver.

She hadn't let herself even think about him in years, much less dream about him. She felt a huge pit form in her stomach as she stared at the ceiling, she was overcome with dread and she felt bile rise in her throat.

She was extremely proud of herself for making it to the bathroom before last night's dinner made a reappearance.

Laurel knew that Tommy had arrived. She felt him the second he had stepped into the house, but after the night she had and the way she had woken up this morning she dreaded seeing him. He could always read her and she didn't want to start their summer together with a fight and the subject of Oliver always started a fight.

So she took her time getting ready for the day, she took a long bath and then showered to remove all of the oils and soap. She took the time to style her hair and did her makeup, knowing that after half an hour on the beach would ruin it. She spent almost and hour sorting through her clothes to find something to wear and finally, when she knew that waiting any longer would be obvious she made her way downstairs.

Tommy looked up from his skillet full of bacon as Laurel sauntered into the room. His face broke out into a huge smile and he didn't try to fight it. He never could when he saw her.

She looked amazing, her makeup done, her hair falling in waves over her shoulder and she was wearing a long flowing sundress. He stepped away from the stove to move towards her, his arms open. He had almost made it over to her when he stopped.

Her eyes met his and he saw the storm.

Everything in him froze and he wanted to scream. They couldn't even have fucking breakfast. He sighed and let his arms fall to his sides and he simply leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. She looked at him, her eyes fluttered and her lips pursed. They both turned to the women sitting at the bar, plates full of pancakes and waiting on bacon. They both seemed to be distracted by their own conversation, but Tommy knew Felicity well enough to know that she had picked up on the signals coming from him and Laurel.

Laurel looked into his eyes for a split second and he knew that whatever it was they needed to say would have to wait, so he returned to his cooking and let her walk away to join to other two ladies.

"Sooo, pumpkin, Felicity and your sis tell me that the three of you have gotten the lay of the land this past week? Know all the hotspots and all? How's about tonight me and you head out to one of these hot spots and the singles find a mixer of some sort?" Tommy asked, his voice upbeat as he switched the bacon from the skillet to the plate.

He turned around to pass the plate over to the ladies and caught the look between the three of them as Laurel swallowed heavily.

"Uh, yeah sure Tommy. I'm sure that would be fine." She said, looking at him through her lashes.

Felicity, always wanting to fill up an awkward silence hummed around her third slice of bacon and nodded. "Yeah, me and Sara have been wanting to stop by this dive bar we keep passing called The League. It looks pretty sketchy and I really wanna see Sara kick someones ass."

Tommy shot her a grateful smile and laughed. "Sounds perfect, whats say we all hit the water after breakfast? Have some fun?" He asked the group, but his eyes were on Laurel. She let out a sigh that she tried to hide with a forkful of pancake and nodded.

"Sounds great."

The four of them spent hours on the beach that afternoon.

Laurel tried to find a way out of her funk, knowing how unreasonable she was being. It was just a dream. Just a dream about a boy that didn't exist in her world anymore and she had an amazing boy in front of her that was trying to make her happy. But even with that to comfort her, she could shake herself out of it.

So she spent her day walking along the each of the water, watching her sister and Felicity chase Tommy around.

Just as the sun was starting to set the group made their way back to the house and disappeared to their respective rooms. Laurel felt the knot in her stomach expand as she and Tommy moved around the room together.

He had come up just after breakfast and unpacked his things, having their clothes and personal effects in the same drawers made her heart skip. It seemed so domestic, them getting ready for a night out side by side. His clothes hanging next to hers, his toothbrush in the same holder.

Sara stopped by when Tommy was in the shower to let her know they were headed out and to wish Laurel good luck. Laurel hated that the vacation had started this way. Tommy had come here to spend time with her and she had let her stupid dream ruin everything.

She sighed and sat in front of the vanity in the corner of the room, starting her make up ritual.

Felicity had been right about The League. It was just the kind of dive bar that Sara would get into a fight in. But as luck would have it, a Monday night in early June was not exactly a happening time for the bar. So Felicity just smiled at Sara from across the pool table and the blonde racked up the balls for another round.

They had been here for an hour so far, and they were two out of maybe fifteen people total, including the super hot bartender that kept shooting them looks. Both girls avoided the elephant in the room, they knew that something was going on with Laurel. Something that hadn't been an issue the night before, or any of the nights that they had had since leaving Boston. Something had upset her, and it most likely had something to do with Tommy, but neither one of them wanted to get involved.

So they stayed at the bar for hours. They bounced between shooting pool, dancing in the corner by the jukebox and playing drinking games with the hot bartender.

Felicity learned after an hour or so of playing 'I Never' with the brunette beauty that her name was Nyssa, she was 27 years old and that she had inherited the bar from her Father, Ra's. She had a very interesting accent that Felicity couldn't place and while she was always very polite to Felicity's questions, she couldn't stop her eyes from following Sara around.

Interesting

The hotspots that Laurel had remembered from her week of exploring with the girls weren't exactly fitting for the kind of talk that Tommy had in mind. So after a very loud dinner at a burger joint and a very boring movie at the local theater, Tommy and Laurel headed back to the house. They were both still on edge, for very different reasons and as Laurel started to climb the stairs of the home Tommy grabbed her hand.

"Hey, do you mind if we go for a walk on the beach. I think we need to talk about some things." He asked her, his eyes not quiet meeting hers. Laurel heaved a heavy sigh and interlaced her fingers with his and nodded.

A few minutes later found then walking along the beach. Tommy chewed on his bottom lip and Laurel wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the chill. The waves were too loud and the moon gave them almost no light to see one another but Tommy couldn't wait to find a better place to have this talk so he went for it. He held out his arm to stop Laurel from moving forward and stepped in front of her to look her in the eye.

"You know, don't you?" He asked, just jumping to the point.

Laurel squinted at him "Know? Know what?" She asked, the question lingering in the salt air.

"About Oliver?" Tommy questioned and watched as Laurel caved in front of him.

Laurel felt like someone had sucked the air from her lungs and she struggled to breathe. No one had dared say that name in front of her in years. At first she had resented the coddling, but now she was grateful for it. That name made her feel sick to her stomach.

"Excuse me?" She asked, her words forced out of a dry throat.

Tommy started to feel doubt, but he knew that he didn't have the time to dance around the subject.

"You know that Oliver is coming back? That he's moving back to Starling City at the end of the Summer." Tommy's statement was full of hesitation and a questioning tone.

Laurel didn't think this day could get worse.

And then it did.

She tried to breathe. She tried to think, but it was all she could do to keep standing. And then suddenly that was too much.

Tommy rushed to her side as she plopped down on the sand, her feet still in the waves.

"Laurel, I thought you knew. You were acting so off all day. I thought you knew already. I'm sorry." He said, his hand on her cheek.

Laurel stared out into the water and centered her thoughts.

"I'm okay. It's fine. I just wasn't expecting that. I was off today because I had a dream that I ran into him. That's why I was so out of it. And I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to fight. I know he's a sore subject. I was beginning to think he wouldn't ever come back. I actually let myself believe he was dead even. That's sick, right?" She asked him, her eyes finally landing on his.

They had spent two years avoiding this subject whenever they could. But they couldn't avoid it anymore.

Laurel smiled a little at him, to let him know she was okay.  
"I'm fine, Tommy. A little shocked that he would show his face after all this time. But it's okay. I mean, I'll be in New York by then, even less chance of seeing him. So it's fine. I'm just glad you told me." She said, the tension that had been in her body all day finally releasing. She leaned to rest her head on his shoulder, where he had come to sit beside her and she felt the change in him instantly.

"Actually,"He started, and she felt his voice vibrate her cheek. "Actually, he is moving back to Starling at the end of the Summer, but he will be back in the States sooner." He said, his tense shoulders belying his causal tone.

Laurel lifted her head and turned to look at his moonlit profile and she knew her eyes were the size of saucers.

"How soon?" She asked, this time her tone wasn't of a broken woman. This time her tone was that of a pissed off one.

"Next week." Tommy said simply.

Laurel swallowed heavily.

"And where will he be until the end of the Summer, Tommy?" She asked and her heartbeat picked up as his eyes closed.

"In the room next to Felicity."

Sara and Felicity giggled as they practically fell through the front door of the house.

It was well after midnight and they had stayed out as long as possible, wanting to give Tommy and Laurel the house for awhile. But after they started seeing two of Nyssa they had decided to call it a night and called a cab back to the house.

As they stumbled through the entry way and started to make their way towards the stairs they froze.

Those were not the happy shouting noises they expected to find upon their arrival.

"You know what I went through with him?" They heard Laurel scream and Sara gasped.

Felicity looked at her friend, confused in her drunken state and started to question her when Sara threw her hand up, a signal to stay quiet.

"Dammit, Tommy you weren't there to see the mess he left! You were away at college, you didn't get to see the wreckage my family was in!"

"Oh." Felicity muttered. They must be arguing about the boy.

"Laurel, it's been five years. He is my best friend. He is practically my brother. You know what he meant to me." Tommy begged, his voice wasn't as loud, but it was closer.

They heard a door swing open and then Laurel was even louder.

"Don't remind me, Tommy. I know exactly how close the two of you were. You want to know why I can't commit to you? Because I know what kind of man you are. What kind of man you both are. And you have just proven it to me. Congratulations."

The door slammed closed again and Felicity winced. She turned to Sara just in time to see her put her head down and walk slowly up the stairs.

The house was buzzing with tension for days.

Felicity hardly saw any of the other residents. She got up every morning, made coffee for herself and a bowl of fruit and then went down to the water with a book.

She debated leaving, but didn't have the money for a plane ticket and the rental wasn't in her name, so she decided to wait it out.

One thing Sara had learned after the incident with Ollie was when to make herself scarce.

She made sure to be up and out of the house as soon as the sun rose and stayed in town until The League opened every evening. She felt awful leaving Felicity in the dark, and in the house, but she couldn't bring herself to explain the whole sordid story.

It was day 3 in the hostile take over that was her summer vacation and Sara had found herself in her favorite dive bar once again. She was peeling the label off of her third beer of the night when Nyssa leaned across the bar and tilted her head at her.

"Where's the other little blonde one?" She asked, her lips curled into a small smile.

"Avoiding the hell that is my house, same as me." Sara said, rolling the sticky paper between her fingers.

"Hmm. Sounds mature." Nyssa said with a chuckle.

Sara watched her as she walked away, wiping the bar down.

It took four days.

Four days of sleeping in another room.

Four days of tiptoeing around each other.

Four days of Felicity and Sara never being in the house.

On Friday morning Tommy rolled over in his bed, his four day stubble making him look kinda hoboish, to see Laurel sitting on the edge of the bed.

He is man enough to admit he jumped a little.

She smirked.

That made him even more afraid.

"Hey, there pumpkin. You got a knife in that robe somewhere?" He asked, looking her over with a keen eye.

She laughed and he didn't find that even slightly comforting.

Laurel watched Tommy as he stood in front of the shared bathroom mirror, shaving off his scruff and smiled.

She was still angry. Actually, angry didn't even cover it. But after days of seething, she had finally come to understand why Tommy had done this.

He had always believed that their relationship was stalled because of her past with Oliver. He thought that she was holding back from him because of the love and the hate she felt for his estranged best friend. So he thought that forcing them back together would convince her to face her issues and finally accept his feelings for her.

It was cute really.

In a sick and sadistic kind of way.

It was Friday morning and Felicity had told herself that if things weren't better by Sunday that she would either find a ride out of town, or at least another place to stay. She was laying on her stomach, facing the ocean and reading when her page was covered by a shadow.

She glanced up, her eyes squinting in the sun and smiled when she saw Sara standing above her.

"Hey, stranger." Felicity said, but there was no venom in her tone.

Sara smile in relief and lowered herself to sit beside the other girl.

"Sorry about the past few days." She started, and then looked out over the water. "Me, and Laurel have a lot of baggage when it comes to Oliver Queen." She said and Felicity pushed herself into a sitting position and faced the ocean with her.

As Sara filled her in, Felicity lowered her head onto her shoulder. There position eerily similar to the one that Tommy and Laurel had found themselves in a few nights before.

They sat there for hours, Sara talking until her voice had taken on a husky quality. Finally it was almost dinner time and they decided to head inside, despite the tension they were sure to find.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Felicity asked quietly to her best friend as they stood at the doorway to the kitchen.

"Don't spook them." Sara said even quieter. "They are like deer. One wrong move and they'll run out in front of a car." She said as she moved extra slowly into the kitchen, her hands raised in front of her.

Laurel rolled her eyes as she looked at her little sister, and then turned back to the oven, pulling out their dinner. Tommy gave an exaggerated laugh that was clearly fake as he poured four glasses of red wine around the table.

Sara and Felicity shared a shrug and took their places at the table.

They could play nice too.

Sunday night arrived, and even though the weekend had ended a lot better than the week has started, no one in the house could seem to sleep.

They all lay in their beds, staring at the ceiling, knowing that in the morning another storm was on it's way to shake up their time together.

Notes: Oliver will make an appearance and we will finally learn where he has been.


	3. This is the Story of How We Met

This is the Story of How We Met (Her Picture Was on the Back of a Pack of Cigarettes)

Chapter Three

June 7th, 2015

Flying from Hong Kong to The US was only slightly less annoying on a private jet. Either way you sliced it, it was a 16 hour flight and for Oliver Queen, having 16 uninterrupted hours to think was at the bottom of his list of fun things to do. Especially since he was flying back to a place, and to people that he was beginning to think that he would never seen again.

For a few years, he wasn't even sure he wanted to.

The last time he had been in the States he very nearly ruined his life.

Oliver had always been wild and out of control, and while his parents had hoped that he would eventually grow out it, he never really did. So when he fucked up beyond even them brushing it under the rug, he was sent on a 'business trip' with his father to the Hong Kong branch of the family company. Oliver thought it was just an opportunity to get out of town until things died down. As it turned out, it was his parent's opportunity to give him an ultimatum. At 20 years old Oliver was presented with the chance to either be cut off from the family fortune and left to fend for himself in a strange country, or to finish college in Hong Kong and train to take over as CEO in his Father's place.

At first, Oliver thought this was just another scare tactic from his parents and decided to play along for a few months and then return home and back to his old tricks. But then he, and the rest of the world received word that the Queen's Gambit, the family yacht had been struck in a freak storm and everyone on board was presumed dead.

Devastated, Oliver tried to return home for the memorial, but Moira had refused. She blamed Oliver for his father's death and told him that his only choice was to remain in Hong Kong until he could run the company. So that is what he had done. He completed his MBA, interned at QC and molded himself into the shrewd business man that Robert had always wanted him to be.

And now, the prodigal son was returning to take over the family company and restore it to it's former glory.

Oliver stood on the edge of the water, his hands shoved in the pockets of his slacks and stared out into the darkness. His shoes and socks were laying somewhere behind him in the sand and his jacket was draped across the back of his bike with his duffel. That was the one detail that he had any input in for his travel plans. He had insisted on having a bike waiting for him at the airport instead of a rental. He had let his Executive Assistant take care of the rest.

He had landed in Raleigh early in the evening, but had taken his time getting to his destination. It ad been five long years since he had stepped foot on American soil and he wasn't going to miss a second of his homecoming. He rode for hours familiarizing himself with his new bike and the roads along the eastern coast, and he tried his best to enjoy his first few hours back.

It was with a heavy heart that he looked out into the ocean. He knew that as hard as the years away had been, that what was ahead of him would be even harder. Not only would he be facing his family again for the first time since the death of his Father, but he would be facing all of the people that he had run out on.

He was happy to be seeing Tommy again, he had missed him these last five years, and to be honest Tommy was the one person he hadn't burned bridges with. But even so, he could probably count on one hand how many actual conversations the best friends had shared these last few years. He knew that Tommy was almost done with his MBA, had been dating Laurel Lance for two years and had been cut off from his trust fund. He had once thought of Tommy as a brother, and now he knew less about his life than Wikipedia. Oliver had excepted the offer to join Tommy at the beach house for the summer for many reasons, but the main one was so that he could see if he and Tommy stood a chance of being that close again.

He and Tommy had bonded at a very young age over having distant business driven Fathers and charity benefit Mothers. As they grew up and suffered loses they became the stereotypical rich assholes that every one expected them to be. They went through sports cars almost as fast as they went though women and used every opportunity to piss off their families. Oliver knew even then that he and Tommy were burning out and fast, but he didn't see a way out.

Then they had gone off to college, they both started out in Seattle. But Tommy actually started to take his classes seriously, so once Oliver realized that this wouldn't just be another place for them to party he had banged the Dean's granddaughter to get kicked out. After that his parents donated a few Library's and a computer lab or two and he had spent two years bouncing from college to college. By the time he had been bounced from the fourth school his parents have given up and he and Tommy were in two different worlds. Oliver kept trying to call Tommy, to arrange a guys weekend in Vegas, a trip to Cancun, something that made him feel like himself. But Tommy was busy with school and had left Oliver alone in the hole they had dug together.

There had been a short period of time after his life fell apart that he had blamed Tommy. If Tommy had been a better brother, if he had been there then Oliver wouldn't have fucked up so bad. But over the years he had come to let go of the resentment he had for anyone but himself.

He knew that Tommy had invited him to spend the summer for more than just a chance to bond. He knew that Laurel and Sara would be there as well, and as much as that idea terrified him, he knew that he not only owed it to Tommy to fix what was broken there, he also owed it to the Lance sisters.

His stomach sank at the thought of them, something he had gotten used to over the past few years. He knew that we he vanished from Starling City that it wasn't just his family that had suffered, he had left at least one other in shambles.

The Lance family had always been a part of his life.  
No, that wasn't entirely accurate.

Laurel Lance had always been a part of his life.

Oliver couldn't remember at time in his life when he didn't know her. And even in his darkest of moments, he never wished that he could. She had been many things to him over the 20 plus years that he had known her. And for the bulk of that he had considered her a part of him. There was even a short amount of time when he called her his. But that had died years ago, in the North China Sea right along with his Father.

He found that ironic in a way, because Oliver knew that his friendship and later, relationship with Laurel had been engineered by his Father. His parents had taken one look at Laurel and even as a child they saw potential in her that they didn't see in Oliver. So they took the proper steps to ensure that she became a part of his life. She was a perfect addition to their plan for the Queen heir.

She was from a good family, one that had enough to provide her with class, but not enough that they would pose a threat to the Queens. She was driven and well spoken and fit right into their little package. She was a flawless kind of beautiful, her hair, her makeup and her wardrobe was always pristine. She read classic philosophers at 15 and visited art museums on the weekends. She drank white wine and laid a napkin in her lap at dinner, and always knew how to seamlessly fit into his parents world.

And Oliver had loved her, he really did. And if he were honest, parts of him still did. They had known each other since their were practically babies and had grown into adults together. She was comfortable and familiar and she knew him better than most. But something had always been lacking and for the bulk of their relationship he thought it was just because he couldn't be happy with one person. So like the asshole he prided himself on being, he cheated on her as often as possible. He never wanted to hurt her, and he always hated himself when she would confront him about a one night stand. But something about committing to her scared the shit out of him, and whenever he was pressed by her or his family to take their relationship to the next level he would run in the other direction.

So when he had fucked up his life for what felt like the last time he took the out that his Father was giving him and got on the family yacht. He wasn't sure if he would have made a different choice if he had known how long it would be before he saw Laurel again.

Oliver took one last look at the ocean, ran his hand over her face and through his hair and walked backwards from the water.

No use in putting off the inevitable any longer.

June 8th, 2015

1 am

Talking. It was the middle of the damn night and someone was talking.

No, not talking, whispering.

Loudly.

Felicity rolled over in bed and groaned.

"Relaxing vacation my ass." She mumbled into the pillow and slowly slid from the bed. She straightened her night shirt and pulled her hair back into the messy ponytail that it had escaped from in her sleep as she made her way to the door. She kept her footsteps lite and her body as small as she could, aware that she could be walking in on another Tommy and Laurel fight. She snuck out of her room and stopped at the stop of the stairs, the landing overlooking the living room and was surprised to see Tommy talking not to Laurel but to another man.

They were both standing in the center of the living room, arms crossed and they were hunched over, trying to get close enough to each other to hear.

"I just don't know that this was such a good idea, Tommy." The blonde man stage whispered to the other man, his face shielded from her view.

"Ollie, man it's gonna happen sometime. Would you rather run into her six months from now when she's with her Dad? You need to fix this mess now." Tommy insisted.

Ollie. So, this was the friend that caused so much drama in the lives of the people she loved the most. Huh. Felicity looked at him in new interest and found him to be kind of lacking.

"But, Tommy, it's not just us. You also have some stranger staying here. That can't go well." The newcomer said, not even trying to whisper anymore. "You think it's a good idea to bring some random into our family drama?" This time the blonde man was facing the landing and his eyes drifted to the shadowed area that Felicity had huddled in.

Felicity gasped, at the mention of her and she flushed, jumping back. She felt embarrassed and rushed back to her room, clicking the door shut behind her.

"Frack." She muttered to herself as she jumped back into bed.

The next morning the house was back to the tense quiet that had engulfed in the week before. Not wanting to be brought in on this week's drama, Felicity was out of bed and dressed for a day on the beach by 7. She peeked at the room to the left of hers, wondering what time the infamous 'Ollie' would emerge and was surprised to see that his door was open and his room was empty.

"Probably drunk in a dumpster somewhere." Felicity mumbled to herself as she trotted down the stairs and out the deck door, beach bag in hand.

The sounds of heavy breathing pulled Felicity from her intense concentration and she lowered the pages in front of her down, and peeked over the top of her sunglasses at the newest guest to casa'da drama. 'Ollie' was jogging her way, shirt off and headphones in. She prided herself on being woman enough to admit when she was wrong. And in the not so harsh light of day, this Ollie guy was actually pretty incredible looking. The fuss was suddenly making since.

But just because he was pretty enough to justify squabbling sisters, it didn't mean she would be another girl to swoon over him. Nope. Not at all. Not gonna happen.

Suddenly he was not just jogging in her direction, but he was jogging directly towards her and Felicity felt a moment of panic. She quickly popped her crossword back up in front of her face and tried to look like she was concentrating. She was sure it just came off as constipated.

Before she knew it, he was standing over her, blocking the sun and casting a rather well muscled shadow over her lap.

"Hello." The well built shadow maker said and Felicity groaned internally. She looked up at him and faltered a little when he smiled.

Ugh. Of course his voice sounded better when he wasn't whispering or calling her random.

She opened her mouth to speak and was distracted when her trusty red crossword puzzle pen flopped out of her mouth and onto her lap.

Smooth, Smoak.

"Um, Hi." Super smooth.

"I'm Oliver." He said politely. He was talking to her like they were in a business meeting. Here she was in a bikini that had ruffles for godsakes, and filling out a crossword puzzle with a pen in her mouth and he was talking to her like they were co-workers. Awesome.

"Queen, yeah I know. Mr. Queen." Mr. Queen. Did she really just call the hot jogging, drama inducing guy, Mister?

"Ugh, nah, Mr. Queen is my father." Oliver said, playing off her stupidity and he took this opportunity to squat down beside her chair and take a rest from his workout. So now they were face to face and that didn't help Felicity to not be a spazz.

"Well, yeah, but he's dead." WHAT?!

"I mean, he drowned. Which you did not." Not any better.

"Obviously, or else you wouldn't be here to hear me babble, which is something I am going to stop doing in 3.2.1." Oh God.

Felicity watched the play of emotions cross Oliver's face and sighed. She put her hand on her forehead and looked at him sideways.

"Sorry, about that, I tend to babble a lot, and it has nothing to do with the fact that your shirtless, well that doesn't really help." She said and then paused and Oliver started to smirk. Frak.

"I mean not that I noticed or anything. I mean, of course I noticed, I'd have to be blind to not notice." Abort mission, abort mission.

"Oh, God. I'm not like crushing on your abs or anything" Felicity was quick to assure him, her hand now flying from her forehead to his bicep, which she grabbed in what she intended to be a reassuring way, but ended up just being creepy. She pulled her hand away like his skin burnt her.

"I mean there are a lot of them to be crushing on, but I'm not." She insisted, and she looked at him and was relieved to see that he was just smiling and not calling the cops or the men in white coats.

She took a deep breath and smiled halfheartedly and held out her hand. " What I meant to say like 8 sentence fragments ago is, Hi, I'm Felicity Smoak and it's nice to meet you. You're Tommy's friend?"

Oliver sat there with a smile on his face, all teeth and cheeks for a good ten seconds before he seemed to catch up and he grabbed her hand for the offered handshake.

"It's nice to meet you Felicity." He said, his words wrapped around a chuckle. "Tommy told me you tend to do that when meeting new people." He informed her and he then cleared a spot on her towel for him to sit, beside her chair.

"He did? When?" She asked, surprised.

"Oh, about ten minutes after you ran away when I caught you eavesdropping on us last night." He said in a casual way, his face turned to the water.

Felicity groaned out load and her head landed heavily against the headrest of her chair.

"In my defense, you guys are terrible at whispering. You woke me up." She complained with a pout and Oliver laughed.

"Yeah, we were never good at the quiet thing. Not in our DNA. But, I just wanted to let you know that I really don't have an issue with you being here. These are your friends too, and I'm sorry if I made it seem like I don't think you belong. I thought that I had dropped Ollie in the last five years but I guess being around Tommy brings him out a little. And just to verify, as I'm sure you've heard, Ollie is an asshat." Oliver finished with a self deprecating smirk and shrug.

Felicity squinted at him behind her sunglasses and turned her body towards him in her chair. "Okay, well the asshat thing I can handle, but the talking about yourself in third person, isn't gonna cut it, Ollie."


End file.
